(East Los Angeles, CA.) —The Garfield Bulldogs (5-0) easily remained undefeated in winning their 2018 Eastern League opener as they hosted the Legacy Tigers (1-1)/(2-4) Overall, from South Gate. After taking their “Bye Week” to rest up and heal up, the Bulldogs went back to work in their usual manner, playing a hard-nosed and punishing defense with the purpose of getting their high octane offense onto the field.

It should be kept in mind that the Tigers are a Division III school. However, since there was an off-season decision made in the divisioning process, they were added as the seventh member of the Eastern League by the CIF-L.A. City Section starting this season.

And thus, on their first possession of the game, at the (10:30) mark, the Dawgs scored from 25 yds. out on a patented P.J. Garcia run via “Student Body” left. This would set the tone for the remainder of the game as the Bulldogs would score on all (11) of their possessions in the game. By midway through the first quarter, the score was quickly bulging and expected to grow even more as the tremendous difference in overall team comparisons was clearly evident.

With their lay-off from last week, and the ever-growing lead in the game, Head Coach Lorenzo Hernandez was able to work on showing different offensive alignments as well as inserting SO/QB/#18 Jonathan Bautista as the starting QB. The plan was to move the season’s starter at SR/QB/#11 Bruce Gonzalez, to WR and present another dimension in their receiving corps. Gonzalez would now compliment SR/WR/#9 Angel Hidalgo as an added receiving threat.This game also gave Coach Hernandez the option of platooning JR/#15 Israel Castillo with Bautista. The goal was to work on developing their passing game, and executing it with positive results. The Bulldogs did so with a flourish. So much so, that the halftime score was (63-7).

The second half was played under the “Mercy Rule” per L.A. City Section regulations due to the (40) point spread. The Bulldogs would add another 14 points to close the game out by the final score of (77-14).

There was high expectation on the Bulldogs side of the field after their victory, as they were informed that they would be facing the unbeaten Bell Eagles (2-0) in their next Eastern League battle next Friday, September 28th at Bell. The Eagles come into the game with a resounding (50-22) win over Huntington Park last week. Kick-off is set for 7 pm.

In Other Scores:

Wilson  57  View Park 18

South Gate  20   Roosevelt  14

Torres  22  Roybal 0

Mendez      BYE Week